Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, mining is the NWT’s biggest industry and the engine of our economy. For decades it has created opportunities for NWT businesses, provided Northerners with good, quality jobs, and contributed significantly to government revenues.

With rich reserves of minerals still to be tapped, there is every reason to expect mining will continue to provide the same kinds of benefits, but that won’t happen without an effort on our part, and our government remains committed to supporting an industry that is not just a part of our history, but which is also a part of our future.

In January, all...

We're a small territory. Like everybody else in the Northwest Territories, if they have a complaint they either go to their MLA or go directly to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't believe I need to commit to that because I believe we have a robust system that's in place and procurement is well-documented in the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Like I said, what has taken everyone 20 years to do, we want to do it in 10 years. In particular, I want to speak about the Yukon Government. We have engaged with them. Their strategy is quite a bit ahead of us. As most people know here, they have a robust agricultural industry in the Yukon, so we have engaged with them. We are learning from their best practices and experiences, so we are drawing on a lot of that. Plus, we have also sent representatives from the department recently to the circumpolar agricultural conference that was held in Iceland, and we want to continue to build on that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The broad overall objectives, the one thing we've got to remember: this is our very first Agricultural Strategy in the Northwest Territories. What we are trying to do with this strategy, what other people have done in 20 years, we are trying to do it in 10 years. It was part of the mandate to try to grow the agriculture sector. We see it as an economic development agenda. We have heard that in community engagements, along with all these other things that are implemented within the strategy. This is a blueprint of what the communities, the growers, the farm people in the...

The Department of Transportation has a budget for the grand opening in November, and the other two are going to be through sources funded through other allocations and different departments, including, probably, the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contractors are working out there right now. They have 3.5 kilometres of embankment that they had to finish in the centre section of the highway. With that work, there are roughly 147,000 cubic metres of material that will be put in place to finish up those 3.5 kilometres. They had eight culverts to finish up, and two bridges, and all that work is nearing completion this winter. Moving on into the summer, operations have surfacing gravel, which will include crushing, stockpiling, and laying out the gravel, then finishing up the guard rails, signage, and such for the...

The Government of the Northwest Territories made a commitment in its mandate to increase exports by promoting NWT products to international markets. I rise today to update my colleagues on recent activities supporting this commitment.

I am pleased to inform Members that, following a long and concentrated lobby by our government and its partners, the Inuvialuit have been formally recognized under the Indigenous exception to the European Union’s seal products prohibition.

This means that the immense purchasing potential of the European Union is now open to Inuvialuit-harvested sealskins and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can supply that information how we arrived to the multiplier effect on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Air Transportation Association of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Chair.